Sustainable growth 'an essential Asean mindset'

Delivering a speech on "Sustainable Development: Challenge and Opportunity for Asean Business" at the "Thailand Sustainable Development Symposium 2011", organised by Siam Cement Group, he said business sectors in Asean would have to cut their reliance on natural resources if they wanted to maintain growth.

Surin said Asean members must change their mindset to focus on driving business under the sustainable-development approach. Limited availability will from now on be the main factor forcing businesses to use natural resources efficiently and with less impact on the environment.

Clean water, for instance, will be the next major global issue, he said, and one in which many countries will fight for resources in a crucial challenge for humans in the coming decades.

"Sustainable development is the global trend, and Asean members have to walk with the same rhythm as the world. Sustainability is not an alternative, but a mindset that we have to have," he added.

Surin said non-tariff barriers such as taxes, trading regulations and environmental concerns were issues that would pressure businesses in Asean to take the sustainable route.

For example, Europe will collect a carbon tax for airlines flying to European destinations if they do not utilise energy-efficiency engines and release lower carbon emissions into the atmosphere.

In another example, he said Australia had recently announced it would collect a tax on consumer products that have palm oil as an ingredient, as Canberra considers that deforestation in order to grow oil palm results in the destruction of biodiversity.

Surin believes such extreme barriers and regulations will increase in the global trading environment, and that business sectors have to prepare themselves to cope with these changes.

He said Asean business sectors had to place more emphasis on innovation development, while reducing the reliance on natural resources for growth.

He said that of Asean's global trading value of US$2.2 trillion (Bt67 trillion) last year, just 25 per cent was accounted for by trade among members of the grouping, showing that it still relied greatly on outsiders.

"We should invest more in research and development so that we can create innovative products, which I will call intellectual products.

"We cannot rely [mainly] on labour-intensive industries and utilising our natural resources," he said.

The Asean head said His Majesty the King's sufficiency-economy philosophy was the answer for sustainable global growth, and Thailand should promote this principle in the World Business Council for Sustainable Develop-ment (WBCSD).

He encouraged Thai companies like Siam Cement Group and agencies such as the Chaipattana Foundation to drive such a campaign.

"This is the answer for the survival of humanity amidst limited world resources in the coming decades.

We should promote the principle as the Thai brand for humanity.

If we can do this, we may boost our confidence on the world stage after having lost it for a few years due to the political turmoil in our country," said the Thai national.

Bjorn Stigson, president of the WBCSD, said the world was in a stage of transition in terms of sustainable development, adding that the drastic increase in the global population, particularly in emerging countries, is a factor in this transition.

By 2050, he said, about 85 per cent of the world's population is expected to live in emerging countries.

Hence, there are many countries that are moving forward along the green path, such as China, which has invested large amounts in clean energy, as well as South Korea and Japan.

The WBCSD has a number of work programmes in the field of sustainable development, he said.

For example, it has worked on the Cement Sustainable Initiative, a programme in which 90 per cent of the world's cement-makers are involved.

These companies will share knowledge about the technology to be used in order to make cement business a clean industry.

Other issues such as energy efficiency in buildings, combating greenhouse-gas emissions and climate change are also priorities for the council. "Now it is time for businesses to find a way to work together.

Even big firms with sufficient resources and funding cannot work alone.

"We cannot pass the test without strong help," Stigson said.